Linda, they are two slightly different species. The C. eriophylla is hardier than the californica. The eriophylla is hardy to the mid teens is grows between 1,000-5,000 feet while the Californica is native to Baja California which doesn't get as cold. The common names are usually the source of confusion. I don't know which species we are talking about, but we got both of them covered now. Hope that helps Here is a link that might be useful: Calliandra eriophylla

Actually, I just remembered a long time ago my friend had a California fan palm in his back yard, and it was grown locally from seed. I believe it was in the ground for quiet a few years and it was well established. It pulled through the winters unprotected, but his neighbor hood "code" made him cut it down because it still had the beard on it and even when pruned they still did not like it, he was not so happy about that. But I think I will be going with the California fan palm. Our winters are dry and it only gets really cold here for about 2 weeks until it starts to warm up. I'll give it a try!

I live in Jacksonville zone 9A, only a few miles southeast of the 8b border. I have an orange tree and a ruby red grapefruit tree that have both survived 9 degree nights (I checked the weather records, the trees are at least 25 years old, so I was able to look up the lowest temps they'd been exposed to.) Most winters we will drop into the mid 20's to upper 20's for at least a week at night, with an occasional drop into the teens that happens once every few years. My neighbor has a tree of a similar age, it is a swingle citrumelo now because the scion froze and only the rootstock survived. The reason why my trees are alive is because they are on their own roots. They are not grafted, someone grew them from a seed. When the tree is ungrafted, unless the earth the roots are in freezes solid, they will come back from the roots even if everything above ground is killed off. I would recommend experimenting with rooted cuttings of anything you'd like. Seeds may be better, I think you'll be more likely to find something that can live on its own, but they will not fruit for 5-10 years, so it depends on your patience. I think just fruits and exotics sells certain types of citrus ungrafted, they sold me a variegated eureka lemon and said those worked better with no rootstock. Many of your plants will die due to the soil conditions on your property. Those that can tolerate your soil should be planted on the south side of your house, and frame protected when young. When they get too big for that, just watering them well before a freeze should save them 95% of the time. The difficult part will be finding something that can grow in your soil with no graft. Once you do, the cold is much less of a problem than for a grafted tree. One warning-- most citrus is dwarfed by the rootstock, my ungrafted grapefruit is 25 feet tall and about 15 feet wide. Think about space considerations and the eventual spread of the canopy and roots when planting close to your house, as citrus roots can be invasive.

I am thinking Im going to go somewhat symmetrical for ease of a newbie like myself. The only two I might not have match are the outer corners because they have drastically different sun light (left corner-full sun, right corner-partial/full shade). Unless I can find a variety that can take full sun and full shade. I did a little a quick mockup with colors to represent varieties. I looked up the varieties you mentioned gardengal as well as started looking at the site you mentioned. My favorites are the Pieris white Cascade but I worry that it is posionous (small kids) and the Osmanthus Burkwoodii. I do also love the gracefulness of the Loncicera Lemon Beauty and my neighbor has one I often admire BUT I worry it tends to lean more Japanese-PNW garden where I would really love more of an English garden with PNW suitable plants. I do like the Mahonias but I think it would work better in my back garden where I plan to have Hostas and ferns and think it would mix in quite nicely there. A came across Viburnum Tinus which I like as well. And as mentioned I think the Osmanthus Burkwoodii would be quite beautiful and I like it is fragranced. would these be better than a Mexican orange blossom or rhodi? Would they mix well with hydrangeas? sorry for my incredibly long post.